Friday, November 28, 2014

Look for some wool that is already on the way
to being darker.I like to use a
four value range on the value scale for this type of workie: #4 #5 #6 #7.

It helps to save on dye
if you are starting out with medium values for dyeing darks.

Here are a group of close values, use
these to judge your selection.

Gather up different wool that fits a “mostly”,
they might be mostly green, mostly grey, mostly brown... just choose the mostly
that suits your purpose or what you have on hand. Use textures and little bits
you might have leftover too. No need to worry about running out. Just make sure
they fit your chosen “mostly”

Here are the Mostly Greys for Old
Stormy before dyeing

METHOD

Wet your wool as usual with synthrapol or the
wool wetter of your choice, shampoo without conditioner will work if you have
nothing else.

Chose one dye from your selection that will get
you the results you desire. Keep in mind what happens to certain colours when
they are dyed with another, for instance, blue dyed over brown becomes tealish.
Maybe you will want to add some black dye to deaden or some brown dye to dull
according to what you need your dark areas to look like. Make that judgment as
you dye. It takes about 1/2 tsp of darker dyes to make this much wool darker
and keep in mind lighter dyes such as yellow will not make a dark colour for
you.

A series of blue greenish wool over-dyed with
black will give you a cool black. For a warmer one look for a “mostly” that are
brown.

Old Stormy

Gather 6 pieces of random grey textures and
solids equaling 8 oz or 3/4 of a yd. Arrange them from light to dark and add
them in that order. This will let more dye go into the lighter wool and less
for the darker woolkeeping the
marriage close in values.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

So often we are reminded to keep on track, to be focused, to get to the point.

A mind that can meander is a gift.

Wandering off the topic can bring us to a new vista to explore.

Let's exercise our wandering mind.

Think of a word, write it down. NOTE: Don't think at length about it, you need to automatically respond with the first thing that comes to mind, and continue to do so to tap into your wisdom.

Book

Then write down the next word that comes to mind.

Book - shelf

Continue to add words until this feels complete, maybe 12 or so words.

Book

Shelf

wait

time

clock

tick

peace

quiet

blanket

bed

read

rest

recycle

Now look where your mind took you, hmmm looks like I need some recuperative time still.

Have fun with this.

How this helps with rug hooking:

Being able to let your mind wander is a way to connect to your innate intelligence. It is so useful when a problem arises in your rug and it is hard to make a decision. Even if you don't think you know what you want or cannot decide what you want that innate intelligence knows. This exercise is a conduit for it all to come out.

After all every part of making our rugs is a series of decisions, all creative endeavours are. Let yourself find out what you really want with your rug.

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things” – Ray Bradbury

Friday, November 21, 2014

And today my Wandaworks girls are coming and we are packing our wares and setting up our table at the Pottawatomi Spinners and Weavers Guild's Annual Show & Sale at the Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library. Owen Sound, Ontario. Come and see us there Sat. Nov 22 from 10:00 to 4:00, pm and Sunday Nov 23 from noon til 4:00 pm.

We will have Majic Carpet Dyes and WandaWear in the form of hand dyed wool jackets scarves and silk ones too... and some art yarn fingerless gloves.

Wool of course for spinning, hooking, knitting and weaving and applique and quilting. All dyed in gorgeous colourways. We will also have needle punching tools and demos.

And a whole assortment of deliciously dyed Gubbins to include in your art yarn.And todays formula for Majic Carpet Dyes ( all the dyeing above was accomplished with them)

Saffron

Saffron

2/32 tsp Orange

1/32 tsp. + 1/64 tsp. Red

1/64 tsp. Seal Brown

Method:

Over ¼ yd of natural wool in a dye bath with Majic Carpet
dyes (though you can use which ever dyes you choose for possibly similar though
not exact results)

Wet wool with an additive such as shampoo, Jet Dry or
Synthrapol to prepare it to dye.Heat a receptacle of water to dye in, for the smooth dyeing of ¼ yd use
approx. 1 gallon of water.Add dye
formula into the dye bath, making sure it is dissolved.

Add wool. Heat
at simmer for several minutes stirring for smooth application of dye. Add in 1/32
to 1/4tsp citric acid depending how dark the colour, about 10 minutes into the
process or until most of the dye is taken up. The latter is what I do. Continue
heating until the water is perfectly clear or per your own directives.Rinse well, use dryer or hang to dry.

And now I'm taking a week or so off for Grammy duty, what bliss! I'll see you soon!

Monday, November 17, 2014

We made beautiful yarns, big crazy batts, wool for hooking or penny rugs and quilting. We have some hand dyed jersey cardiwraps, scarves and fingerless gloves! We are bringing kits of our Majic Carpet Acid Dyes for wool, silk and nylon of course and other amazing tools to use yarn with and delightful bags of gubbins to spin with.

On my free studio, The WandaWay our boon this week is about a 3 part career spanning series of 7 effective hooking habits. Three times in my teaching career I've visited the ideas I think help us be more eloquent story tellers and habitually successful in our hooking craft.

To see this boon please go to The Main, look in the middle section and scroll down

One of the effective habits I list is to Search The Welcome Mat, it is the bargain of the century. You will never learn so much for so little, no matter your area of interest in rug hooking. It costs about 10¢ a day. That is as close to free as dammit is to swearing! Go here to join up.

Another effective habit I gave was get help if you need it. I have a classroom in WandaWay Studio where I do individual, one on one tutoring for only $100, How much does 1 hour over a week at rug school cost you? That's about how much time I can spend with you there when my class is full. It is a wonderful way to get yourself going in the direction you desire. Includes a skype or facetime session!

People have told me lately they need me to build them a wool palette for their rugs.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

It's snowing here today and it turns us to thinking about warm colours and cheery fires and cozy dark nights curled up with your rug frame. Here is a warm old country red for you today. Humidify your house by dyeing!

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

I made a formula and from this got both a light and a
darker yellow. I dyed only sample sizes of wool, 1/16th yd of
natural wool with Majic Carpet Dyes using a dye bath method.My yellow needs extreme heat and a low acid environment, this is why when I spot dye at 350˚F in my
oven it takes up and also when I use my electric skillet, always set to 400 ˚F
yellow gives me no problem. If I were you I’d not add acid until after all or
most of the colour has disappeared from your dye bath. Heat up that dye bath and don't add acid until most of the colour has taken up. Steam can really get the temperature up so use a lid.

Formula

Dissolved in ½ cup of water

1/64 tsp. Yellow

1/128th tsp. Orange

Butter

To make Butter use 1 Tbsp. of Formula 1

Buried Bullion

To make Buried
Bullion add in 1/128th of Black and 1/128th tsp. Seal
Brown to the remainder of Formula 1 or the whole ½ cup if you desire only Old
Bullion. The 1 tbsp. added in or removed will not make a perceptible
difference.

I used 1/8 yd of natural wool for each color. I used the electric wok and the crock pot and a dye bath method ( lots of water to cover wool and allow it some swimming room, raised to a steam producing temperature). Add formula to heating water, add wool, heat for 10 to 20 minutes until most of the colour has taken up and then add 1/32 tsp. to 1/4 tsp. of citric acid per colour. Stir and continue to heat until all the colour is absorbed.

Wool:
According to the size of your pot select at least 1 dz assorted wools of varying colours, patterns, etc. Your objective is to have the wool float around some what freely. This is great for using up leftover pieces of wool or you can select new wool. If your pot is big, I select bigger pieces or more wool. Your aim is to not have the wool packed in.

Dyes:
Decide on your main colour, write it down. Who are it's neighbours? Look
at either side of it on the colour wheel. Write these down.
If you pick red you will find violet, red violet, (red)
red orange, orange, yellow. Select dyes you have written down these will included your main colour and its neighbours to either side. If you must invite a neighbour from across the street remember they will be so dulling to the party.

Method:
Add wool to hot dye bath.
Wet spoon handle/chopstick.
Tap off excess water.
Dip directly into dye, stick into pot various places until utensil is clean.
Tap off excess water, dip into next dye stick into pot in new places.
Do this with each dye until all on your list have been used.
No stirring - Stick the dye covered spoon handle or chopstick straight to the bottom of the pot.
You might need to reload your utensil. I like to put each dye in at 1/4 interval, like the points of a compass, I move a few degrees for each dye I apply.

I have some great little tips on overdyeing for you too over where we practise Majic.
I think you should join The Majic Carpet Club. I give extra delicious tidbits there. And it is wonderfully, perfectly free.

Have a great day!
Get your Majic On here Don't worry about the shipping charges - we refund excesses.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

We are Kicking some fine November arse over on The Mat.
We have two days creative prompts with a day between to ruminate that will take us all the way through.
People are doing some amazing things and are catching further ideas to build upon in the future!
Creativity is a vast ocean, gather it by drop, cup or tanker truck, it's up to you!Join us!

Are you fractious over fractions when you dye?

Maybe this will help.

Man pretty much believes in the power of pie and feels it will help anything.

Many people have trouble with fractions and
let’s face it we haven’t had to consider these in some long time. I want to
give you a good mental picture to help you remember about what is bigger and
smaller. We are all familiar with pie. If I had 512 of you come for supper and
we had one pie, and you wanted an equal share you would get a very small piece.
If I had 8 of you come over your piece would be much larger because the pie
would only be divided into 8. When the number on the bottom of a fraction is
large it is a small amount.

Here is a chart that helps show you the equal measures of all the fractions we commonly use in dyeing

Each time we go up a measurement on this chart
we darken the value of our wool by one step, if we go down this measurement
chart our values will lighten by one step on the value scale. When you go
across a line all the measures are equal.